Connect

Rio de Janeiro

RIO DE JANEIRO — A crucial element in the fight against insect-borne diseases like dengue fever or malaria is the use of insecticides to kill the bugs that transmit the illness.However, many communities that are affected by dengue fever are inaccessible to heavy-duty spraying equipment.

Engineers in Brazil have come up with one possible solution. It is called Motofog: a motorbike-mounted mobile insecticide sprayer that can reach those hard-to-get-to areas.

As well as a string of locations across Brazil, Motofog is also now being used in countries in Africa and the Caribbean.

RIO DE JANEIRO — The prospect of hosting the 2016 Olympic Games was presented to the people of Rio de Janeiro as a chance to showcase the city to the world, generate investment, and improve the lives of its residents — but two recent events illustrate how the combination of construction for the games and a worsening housing crisis has prompted accusations that Olympic preparations are riding roughshod over Rio’s most vulnerable inhabitants.

On Tuesday, police evicted squatters from an abandoned apartment building that onetime Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista had leased from the Flamengo soccer club, hoping to convert it into a swanky hotel for the Olympics before the collapse of his oil and mining empire.

SÃO PAULO — Protests in Brazil’s two biggest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, calling for rises in public transport fares enacted earlier this week to be revoked, ended in violence on Friday.

In São Paulo, the event organised by Movimento Passe Livre (the Free Fare Movement, MPL) reunited up to 10,000 people, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent at the scene. Police put the number at 5,000 by the end of the protest, while the MPL said 30,000 people had participated.

The crowd marched around the city centre in protest at the 50-centavo price hike, which increased single fares on bus, local train and metro services to R$3.50 (US$1.33).

SÃO PAULO — Brazil now boasts the most multi-millionaires in Latin America and is ranked tenth in the world, according to a study reported by local media.

The study by Johannesburg-based wealth consultancy New World Wealth also showed that São Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city and business center, is the world’s 17th for multi-millionaires, defined in the report as having more than $10 million in net assets.

Currently the world’s seventh largest economy, Brazil has 10,300 multi-millionaires, of which 4,400 are concentrated in São Paulo and a further 2,200 in Rio de Janeiro, putting the “Marvellous City” in 27th position globally.

CIDADE DE DEUS, RIO DE JANEIRO – Businesses in the Rio de Janeiro favela (shanty town) community of Cidade de Deus aim to reinvigorate the use of a local currency, first brought in three years ago, in a bid to boost trade and prevent money from leaving the area.

In 2011, Cidade de Deus became one of the first communities in Rio to offer locals the option to use their own currency, known as the CDD.

Those using CDDs, instead of the country’s official currency, the Brazilian real, are given discounts and other perks. The project is one of hundreds used around Brazil.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Hundreds of football fans in Brazil for the World Cup are refusing to pay sky-high accommodation prices and instead are opting to sleep rough during the key sporting event.

In Rio de Janeiro, football fans from all over the world can be seen sleeping in the main bus station and on the city’s famous beaches, where temperatures have tumbled to 15°C at night and rain has been a regular feature.

Fans, including many from Argentina, Colombia and Chile, have come to Brazil for weeks in some cases without booking any accommodation and, for most, the risk is directly linked to hotels inflating prices during the World Cup.

SÃO PAULO – Witnesses in Rio de Janeiro say police fired live rounds in two separate incidents at Sunday’s anti-World Cup protest, held around a mile from the city’s famous Maracanã stadium during the venue’s inaugural World Cup match, between Argentina and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

RIO DE JANEIRO/SÃO PAULO – Military police in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro have clashed with anti-World Cup protesters near the famous Maracanã stadium as the city’s first match of the month-long tournament got underway.

As Argentina faced off against Bosnia and Herzegovina on the pitch, protesters marched in streets near the stadium to voice their anger at World Cup spending by the Brazilian government and what they view as serious underfunding of public services.

The march reunited around 300 people at its height, but riot police ensured they did not breach police lines formed to prevent the protesters from getting to the stadium.

UPDATE: See my report for Mashable on eyewitnesses reports of police using live rounds at protest.